Microsoft Advertising adCenter UK - Top 5 Holiday Destinations for 2012

With winter looming and Christmas just 10 weeks away there’s just one thing travel advertisers should be thinking about at this time of year…January holiday bookings! With the start of the New Year comes new holiday allowances and what better way for people to cure their post-Christmas blues than to start planning and booking their summer holiday.

Working as an analyst for the travel vertical at adCenter, I’m currently spending much of my time identifying top holiday destinations for 2012 with a view to optimising accounts based on my findings ready for the January booking boom.

To help all of you focus your attention on those PPC campaigns that will reap rewards in the coming months I’m going to share some insights with you on my forecasted top 5 Holiday destinations for 2012.

Turkey. Searches on Bing for holidays in Turkey are expected to grow by 92% in November through to February. The director for the UK’s Turkish Culture and Tourism Office, Tolga Tuyluoglu, reported that “Turkey has gone from strength to strength and has been one of the fastest growing destinations for British visitors in the last 5 years”

Cyprus Another destination that’s set to move up the leader board is Cyprus. An 88% increase in Bing search query is expected over the next 4 months. The popular party resort Ayia Napa featured in TripAdvisors ‘Top 25 Beaches in the world’ list for 2011 as well as being included in Holiday Hypermarket’s list of Top honeymoon destinations.

Egypt Ever the popular holiday destination, Egypt is a firm favourite with holiday makers. Pushed down a place by Cyprus this year but still expecting growth. Another reason the country has fallen a place is that In late January 2011 the country experienced widespread political protests. The Egyptian Tourist Authority reported that "Many tourists have continued and are continuing to holiday in the Red Sea areas and other parts of Egypt which is great and very much indicative of their confidence in the security and safety in Egypt," Mr Khalil told eTravel-Blackboard.

UK Holidays The ‘staycation’ is in at position 4. Holidays in the UK are still very appealing as the economic situation continues to affect consumer confidence. Visit England reported they expect 2011 to follow the same trend as 2010 with 2 in 10 people taking a break in England that would have previously been taken abroad. With the economic situation unlikely to show any improvement for some time, 2012 looks set to follow suit. Focus on areas such as the Lake District, Devon and Cornwall as searches on Bing for these destinations are expected to grow in the next 3 to 4 months.

European city breaks. Bing is forecasting a huge increase in the number of people searching for breaks to European cities in 2012, in some cases as much as 600%! Focus on areas such as Italy, Spain & Germany.

What next? So now you know where to focus your time and attention what should you do next?

• Start expanding on keywords related to the top destinations.
• Consider raising your bids on these terms, if your budget is limited just stick to those terms related to saving money, or consider moving budget from other areas.
• Around 80% of clicks for keywords related to the mentioned destinations come from the top 3 positions so aim high!
• Include words such as ‘cheap’, ‘save’ and ‘discount’ in your ad copy. Terms including these words are expected to grow by 120% as people put a higher priority on saving money.

With vast competition for ad placement in January you’ll be in setting yourself in good stead if you start preparing your accounts well in advance of this busy period…so let’s get optimising!

If you haven't yet set up a travel PPC campaign on Bing, why not check out adCenter today?